Rocket Attack Kills 2 In Kosovo

MITROVICA, Yugoslavia - A rocket attack on a bus filled with Serbian civilians killed two elderly villagers and wounded three more people Wednesday, yards from their armed NATO escort.

The Serbs were using a weekly bus service organized by the United Nations high commissioner for refugees to get to their village in northern Kosovo and were ambushed, NATO peacekeepers said. A spokesman for the high commissioner's office said it was the worst such attack on a Serbian convoy here and will set back efforts to encourage peace and tolerance between Albanians and Serbs.

Tensions rose in the divided city of Mitrovica, about 12 miles from the scene, soon after the attack. French troops reported four explosions in the Serb-dominated northern half of the city.

The attack on the bus shook the office of the high commissioner, which immediately suspended all similar bus services. Since November, the office has introduced eight bus services in the province to allow Serbs who are cut off and threatened by Albanians to move freely. Until Wednesday, the bus trips had encountered no problems beyond a few stones.

In the attack Wednesday, an elderly man and woman were killed instantly. French troops took two others to a hospital at the French base in Mitrovica. A man in his 30s, with a severed leg and hand, was being operated on in a Mitrovica hospital, said Lt. Col. Patrick Chanliau, a spokesman for the French troops.